He's now a student at Edinburgh University. We borrowed him from his studies for a quick-fire Q&A on the dos and don'ts of student cooking.

What is the most common mistake students make when cooking?

Buying cheap food in the wrong areas. Budget ingredients can be great but stuff like meat and fish really pay you back if you shell out a little bit extra. So balance what you cook across the week so you eat less meat and fish, more pasta and grains etc. And when you do have a chicken, meat or fish dinner, pay a bit more for it so its good quality.

You can always pitch in with other students and share a proper roast or the meat for a good stew. It can work out much cheaper and tastier than investing in ready-meals every night of the week.

Where should somebody utterly clueless about cooking begin?

Find a buddy who can cook and work alongside them. Get a good book – mine if you like – find something you fancy and work through it. Don't stress if you make mistakes. And give yourself a bit of time to cook whatever you've chosen to have a go at. Don't start on a souffle if you're just heading out for the night.

Also, hold a cooking night once a week – invite mates round, learn together. We did it every Tuesday in my first flat.

Other than the usual pots and pans, which kitchen implement is most indispensable when you cook?

Lime Sherbert Butterfly Chicken is really tasty, quirky, healthy, looks good, and the easy prep and cooking means you've got time free for chatting, entertaining and impressing. Someone told me it has a Facebook page though I haven't seen it. But I've had several appreciative tweets about it. From females in particular....

What do you think of the fabled "Guinness and bananas" university diet?

It's perfectly fine as long as you supplement it with proper food. Something very odd might happen to you otherwise.

VIRGIN TO VETERAN by SAM STERN, published by Quadrille (£20, hardback)